Hospital Tour

As usual, our newest Finnish experience started with us speaking English to someone and them shaking their head and leaving the room to find someone else for us to talk to. This was in the hospital in the maternity area. (There is more than just one "ward".)

We waited for an English speaking midwife to arrive and show us around. She was very nice and spoke great English, though there were a few times she struggled with a word or two. We walked around the labor and delivery area. We saw the one room with a tub, plus all the "usual" things (monitors, and tubes, etc). There was a wooden rocking chair that looked quite out of place in this very hospital looking room. The shower in the bathroom was quite cramped between the toilet and the sink. Not what I was hoping for, but oh well. We traveled on to other rooms all of which were about the same though as we went we learned about new things. Such as, they have one wireless monitoring unit, which looked relatively uncumbersome.

We talked about pain management that is not an epidural or heavy drugs, and we learned about two new ones! One is N2O, nitrous oxide. I guess they don't use it in the US for labor very often, even though it is very safe for the mother and baby (It may be a little more unsafe as an occupational hazard). It's a middle of the road kind of thing. It doesn't knock out all pain, but lessens it, and doesn't have the "chain of interventions" that come with other drugs mostly because it leaves the system quickly. I didn't find all of this out at the hospital. I've been researching since I got home. And there are mixed opinions. Or more like mixed ideas, because there isn't much research on the effects in humans. There are a few studies on animals which are very extreme and therefore not very helpful.

Anyway, then we also learned about water injections under the skin for back pain. This was the oddest sounding thing! We asked "how does it work?" and she said "because it hurts". Huh? I guess the idea is kind of a "oh your arm hurts? let me punch you in the other arm and distract you." But they inject you under the skin with water in the back. And maybe she said that it helps release more endorphins? I'm not sure, but if anyone has some solid info, I'd like to hear about it!

Over all it was definitely good to see where we will be. It was, however, not what we had envisioned. Not that either of us had a solid picture. It was a lot more "cold and sterile" than I expected. We had talked to people about what they had in the rooms, like a CD player and rocking chair and exercise balls. They were all there, but so were all the tubes and electronics hanging above the classic blue and white sheeted bed. The bed too was in the middle of the room with everything around it, which must be bad Feng Shui. It means though that while there is room to move around, there isn't floor space. I wouldn't know which corner to hang out in...

As we walked home, we talked about how seeing the hospital rooms at least prepare us for reality. I think it means I'll be that more inclined to stay here for as long as is prudent. John observed, and I agree, that the more important thing is that we are being cared for by midwives who have a philosophy that we strongly agree with. The midwife we talked to seemed very supportive of natural birth even while saying that many women don't do it here. She also talked about how each midwife has their own style. She prevents tearing with hot packs. Others may do something different. Another thing we found out is that they can have up to nine women in labor and they have usually three midwives, but sometimes more.

We also saw the place I'll stay after. Not too glamorous either, but fine. There's a kitchen that I will have access to the whole time and two sitting areas, one on either end of the hall. The rooms were small for sharing them with three others, but that's fine.

So that's the hospital. We have an appointment tomorrow with Virve. We also will notify the apartment company that we'll be leaving in Feb, mail our claims to our insurance, and drop by the hospital again to give them the insurance information. It's a very long walk to the hospital, about an hour and 10 minutes, so getting other errands done too will be more efficient then our walk today. We didn't do much more than the hospital visit! As we walked there we did have lots of blue sky and some sun and as we walked home we had a great sun set. Walking in and of itself was good too because we didn't leave the apartment yesterday. John feels like he's turning the corner on being sicky. He thinks the sauna tonight helped. Hopefully all the sugar from the ginger bread house we just ate won't hurt the progress too much. The barn is slowly being demolished.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. We did! And now we are waiting. And getting ready to celebrate New Years, though we don't know how yet...